Check this out! If San Jose Taiko plays anywhere near you, get a ticket. They are well worth it.
Mr. Al made an anual habit of going to see the Kodo drumers when they came thought Madison, back in the day. We are both big fans of drums, drumming, etc. There’s nothing remotely like that out here most of the time. The few drummers circles I have attended were soo full of people who had never before set hand to drum as to be painful.
So when we heard from the kids they were going on a field trip to hear some Japanese type drumming, we checked into it. Sure enough, it was Taiko, which we wouldn’t miss. My dd got to see them twice – once in the field trip and the next night with us.
At frist I thought they were going to be a disapointment. The initial beat, played on the big drum, was a hair off. It got noticably better when other drummers joined the frist, but still didn’t quite hit the right note until the second or third song whey they added a touch of humor.
Yep. Funny drumming. It was a blast!
In one piece two drummers came out with cymbols in their hands – we’re talking the little 6 inch hand cymbols here, the ones tha come in pairs. They did a little dancing duet thing. In the middle of it a drummer comes from the back of the stage with nothing in his hands, jumps over a drum and does a ta-da gesture as if he were responsible for the good music. He then gestures to each of them to let him have their cymbols. In each case it looks like he’s going to get it, then the durmmer with the cymobls pulls them back. The one with nothing expresses inspiration through hand gestures and facial expression, then begins stomping and clapping rhythmicly. Soon the other two have joined right along. It’s all done with such joi de vieve. The audiance couldn’t help laughing.
In most of the songs they did a lot of trading of drums. At one point they did a sort of musical chairs thing with the drums, dancing in a big circle around the stage while maintaining the rhythem on which ever drum they were near.
Talk about dancing while drumming, the final piece was a knock out. They set the drums up with two of the mediums – we’re talking about drums about half the height of a man set up stands to about shoulder level – facing one another, then had two drummers facing each other between the drums. Then both drummers played both drums at the same time. There were several stations like this set up. I’m thinking five but don’t remember for sure. At any rate they shifted from side to side, litterally kicked up their heels, and did turning leaps while doing this two drummers on two drums business.
Seriously, the performance was fun, fascinating, and impressive. If they come anywhere near you, check it out.
Alice
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